Image copyrightAlamyImage caption
The guitar was used by Bukka White for over 30 years

A guitar once owner by legendary Blues musician Bukka White has fetched £93,000 at auction.

The 1933 National Duolian resonator guitar, known as "Hard Rock", was used by him for over 30 years.

Booker T Washington "Bukka" White is considered to be a pioneer of Delta Blues slide guitar.

The instrument was given to a UK-based photographer in 1976, and has been played by musicians including Mark Knopfler, Bill Wyman and Dave Stewart.

It sold for a fee of £93,000, including buyer's fees, at Gardiner Houlgate auctioneers in Corsham, Wiltshire.

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs said Bukka White was a founding father of the Delta Blues and an influential, definitive player of the genre.

Image copyrightMark Knopfler playing Bukka White's guitarImage caption
Mark Knopfler is one of several famous musicians to have played the guitar

"He and Son House really created this genre of music, the Blues slide playing," he said.

He added that the guitar's seller, Keith Perry, felt that the time was right to "move it on" and "let it see the next part of its journey".

"Bukka White used it as his main gigging and touring guitar for three decades.

Bukka White was an influential African-American guitarist from Mississippi, USA

He was considered a pioneer of Delta Blues slide guitar

His guitar, nicknamed Hard Rock, was described as a "holy relic" by his cousin, blues legend BB King

White died in 1977 at the age of 70

"The vendor was given it by Bukka White in 1976... and he has allowed people like Mark Knopfler, Lonnie Donegan and Eric Bibb to play it.

Speaking ahead of the sale he said the seller wanted it "to have as many decades again in someone else's hands, or even go into a museum to hold it, and to display it and hold events to let people to play it for ever more".

A similar National guitar adorned the cover of Mark Knopfler's group Dire Straits' multi-million selling 1985 album Brothers In Arms.